and that money goes for things like national defense and social welfare programs. but it also stays right here. you see the federal government of washington, d.c. area employs 245,000 people. and the pay and compensation is very good. the average pay in compensation is about $120,000 a year. and those individuals get paid to do all sorts of things. in the parallel universe that is washington, d.c., even the fact that this is borrowed money that we're going into debt creates a job opportunity there is a federal agency called the bureau of the public debt is hiring people to help cope with the money that we are spending that we cannot afford to pay for. the problem goes beyond federal employees because you see, in addition to federal employees, there are legions of government contractors and government contracting firms that spend time and spend a lot of money here in washington, d.c. in fact under president bush that reached some years up to $400 billion being spent to private contractors, indeed over the past decade we are talking about trillions of dollars going t